Slayer’s Tom Araya Discusses Progress on Intense New Album

Slayer have sparingly worked on new music this year, focusing mostly on their touring with the Mayhem Festival, but according to singer Tom Araya, the group is working hard to make sure their twelfth studio album arrives next year.

Araya tells Seven Sisters Post, "We are working on a new album, aiming for a 2013 release. We are experimenting with a lot of sounds. What we can tell you is that the new album will be very Slayer."

The vocalist says that even though they are now elder statesmen in the world of metal, it hasn't mellowed them out any. He adds, "We have maintained our signature intensity, which is the heavy and fast. Age, huh? Slayer has lived up to its signature intense music and crazy lyrics for the last 30 years with every new album that we come out with."

Over the summer, guitarist Kerry King had stated that while it was still early in the process, the fact that fellow guitarist Jeff Hanneman was still recovering from the flesh-eating spider bite had no role in their progression. The guitarist stated that they had secured engineer Greg Fidelman for a 12-day window that yielded two new songs, with several other tracks in various forms of completion, but that it was his hope that the band would block out some time in October to fully attack the record.

At present, there are four late October shows in India and Japan, and then nothing on their tour schedule until the Soundwave Festival in February 2013.